Close stellar encounters could change the structure of our planetary system, potentially dooming Earth or other worlds to ...

Artist's impression of Planet Nine – a suspected “wide-orbit” planet – with the Sun in the distance; Neptune's orbit is shown ...

Stars passing close to the sun could cause planets to collide, including with Earth, or even be ejected as rogue planets, new simulations show. By Katherine Kornei If our species manages to hang ...

Mercury reaches its greatest elongation, 26 degrees east of the sun on July 4. From latitude 40 degrees north, the ...

Zooming in on 78 disks in the Ophiuchus star-forming region, scientists saw hitherto undiscovered structures around young ...

In the remote outer reaches of planetary systems, far beyond the orbit of known planets, enormous and mysterious worlds ...

A recent study indicates a small chance that Earth could be ejected from our solar system due to passing stars. Simulations ...

Passing stars could trigger instability across the solar system, resulting in Earth being hauled out of its orbit.

For centuries, astronomers have sought to understand the formation and evolution of the solar system and the dynamics that govern it. In particular, there is the long-standing question of whether ...

Detecting exoplanets is one thing, but imaging them is another thing entirely. Astronomers can detect them by the way they ...

A new study has found that solar flares—sudden bursts of energy from stars—can trigger short-term weather changes on planets far beyond our solar system. The research, published in The Astronomical ...